Rob O’Donovan, co-founder and CEO of CharlieHR, ponders whether the UK tech sector is ready for a four-day working week.
In 1926, Henry Ford started shutting down his factories on the weekends and reducing the working week from six days to five. As a result, he’s widely credited with the contemporary expectation that Saturdays and Sundays are “days off”. Nearly a century later, is there now a case to extend our leisure time further? Who will be the next Henry Ford?
The advancements technology have brought to the way in which we all work have strengthened the case for a four-day working week. Increased automation and the implementation of artificial intelligence into our professional lives enable more to be achieved with less human hours, and in recent months we’ve seen politicians and unions agree that the idea of working less per week could be achieved in the UK sooner than we think in a variety of industries....